remote Aboriginal communities

‘Democracy is worth it’: Pat O’Shane calls for remote polling booths to be staffed

Kuku Yalanji woman Pat O’Shane has slammed the reported failure to find staff for polling booths in Cape York communities. Kerry Smith reports.

‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’

So declared George Orwell’s allegorical Joseph Stalin, Napoleon the Berkshire Boar, in his 1945 classic Animal Farm. In Australia, we’ve declared war on some inequalities, like those contained in the Marriage Act, while we acquiesce to, tolerate, ignore or accept many others. Just like the animals on Orwell’s Manor Farm, in contemporary Australia, it seems all inequalities are equal but some are more equal than others.

Barnett plan fudges closure of remote communities

The WA government released its plan for remote Aboriginal communities on July 14. The spin is all about “better living conditions”, “supporting families” and “more opportunities”. However the substance is still entirely about penny pinching and withdrawing resources. Communities will close if it is implemented. When WA premier Colin Barnett first announced that up to 150 communities would be forced to close, people responded with a massive, international protest movement to save the communities.